John recalled: “I had been an actor since the age of nine. It was all I had ever wanted to do.

"Then one day my agent got a call from someone – and it all ended up going down the pan.”

He was invited to a meeting at London’s exclusive Savoy hotel. He was told there would be a lucrative offer.

John went on: “He said if I went to Dubai for a celebrity nightclub opening there could be a chance to work with Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone.

"Those were my acting idols.

“He knew exactly how to tempt me. He must have known I loved golf as he said I might meet Nick Faldo too.

"They said I could be a millionaire overnight if I did what they wanted.”

John admitted he was bowled over to be in introduced to “His Royal Highness Mohammed Al-Kareen”.

He recalled: “Mahmood’s outfit was so convincing. I bowed when I met him.

"He had a Rolex and a Rolls-Royce, I was only a young actor. I thought I was in the presence of royalty.”

John, who suspects his drink was spiked, said he came under such intense pressure from the “sheikh” and his cronies he called a friend and arranged to collect cocaine on their behalf and take it back to the hotel.

He recalled: “I just felt I was totally in over my head and I didn’t know what to do.

“Stupidly, I decided to do what they asked and get them drugs.

Free: Alford walks out of prison in 1999 (Image: PA)

“It’s true I had been on the party scene, going to clubs and taking cocaine, since I was young.

"But I’d put the drugs behind me by that point.”

John insisted it was the only time in his life he fixed a drug deal.

He said: “I was wrong to sort out the deal and I’ve been paying for it ever since.

“If it wasn’t for Mahmood there would have been no drug deal. I wasn’t a drug dealer, I was an actor.

"But after the court case, that was it – I couldn’t get work.

“Other actors and producers didn’t want to know me. People would pull out of projects if there was even I whisper I might be involved.”

John was told he was out of a job before he went on trial at East London’s Snaresbrook Crown Court in 1999, where he was convicted of supplying cocaine and cannabis to Mahmood.

In court it was said Mahmood had received a call from an anonymous showbiz pal of Alford, claiming the star was supplying drugs.

Hidden cameras recorded John, on trial under his real name Shannon, leaving the Savoy Hotel in London, then returning and putting drugs on the table.

John, whose weight dropped to seven stone during the trial, told the jury he was “technically” guilty – but urged them to acquit him because he had been “set up”.

He served time in Brixton and Pentonville prisons.

Then, finding ­himself unable to secure acting work, he scraped a living as a roofer, ­scaffolder and minicab driver.

He is finally starting to revive his career with a part in a football comedy called What’s The Score? due for ­release later this year.

But John said: “My life was never the same after the Fake Sheikh trapped me. I’ve had extremely low moments.

Today: John served time in Brixton and Pentonville (Image: Ian Tuttle)

"If it wasn’t for the strength of my friends and family I wouldn’t be here. I thought about taking my own life.”

He lured her by suggesting she could win a role opposite DiCaprio ahead of British Hollywood star Keira Knightley – at meetings in London and Los Angeles.

Then he persuaded her to sort a drugs deal.

Cocaine was delivered at London’s Dorchester hotel last May and Tulisa was subsequently arrested and charged with helping to obtain the drug.

But she last week punched the air in triumph outside court when judge Alistair McGreath said he had strong grounds to believe Mr Mahmood lied in order to cover up evidence that Tulisa had said she disapproved of drugs.

Labour MP Tom Watson wrote to Met Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe, saying: “Given Justice McCreath’s comments, I would ask that the Metropolitan Police Service interview Mr Mahmood, on the grounds of perjury, as soon as possible.”

If convicted of perjury, Mahmood, 51, could face up to seven years in jail.

His employers said after Tulisa’s trial collapsed: “We are very disappointed with this outcome, but do believe the original investigation was conducted within the bounds of the law and the industry’s code.”